A business service franchise may be a great option as they typically require a relatively low investment. By Jerry Rieder

If you are customer- and service-orient­ed, you can go far establishing a successful business. A business service franchise may be a great option as they typically require a relatively low—under $100K— investment and encompass a wide range of service offerings. These services—everything from janitorial to marketing to printing and copying—can be purchased by prospective clients at less expense, and they’re often executed with higher quality through out­sourcing than paying for them internally.

One reason to consider a service-based franchise is that when you start a busi­ness, one of the most challenging tasks is the creation of an effective business plan. Business service franchisors offer business models with proven track records, and many provide franchisees with a high level of support to help ensure mutual success.

Having a successful, proven method for growing a franchise helps ensure the fran­chisor’s brand remains strong. The relation­ship between a franchisee and a franchisor is a strategic partnership, and it’s through this partnership that a solid business model providing quality services grows a franchise.

Another key advantage of this type of franchise is that most service-based franchi­sors allow their franchisees to operate from home-based offices in the beginning, then once the operation grows considerably, they can expand into their own offices. This sig­nificantly reduces initial operating costs and overhead, when revenue is typically low.

In general, business services franchises are a win-win situation for the franchisee, the franchisor, and the clients they serve. Considering a business services franchise? Here, we list three high-growth, in-demand categories—and a few well known franchis­es within them.

Commercial Cleaning

A great opportunity for recurring revenue and a reces­sion-resistant business, commercial cleaning is usually geared toward executive ownership, meaning franchi­sees run and grow the business rather than doing the cleaning themselves. Office Pride and ServiceMaster Clean are both recognized as leading full-service com­mercial cleaning franchises with an emphasis on ser­vice. They both provide commercial-cleaning services, both short and long term.

Signage

Sign franchises are a high-growth industry with many advantages: manageable business hours, low seasonality, few employees, and recession resistance. FASTSIGNS and Im­age360 are two of the industry’s leading sign and graphic franchises. Both are full-spec­trum providers of all types of visual communication products and services. Using a com­puter-based design technique, these franchisors emphasize sign and graphic solutions, offering fast turnaround, a business-to-business environment, and top-quality signs and graphics for corporate, professional, and retail clients.

Consulting

You don’t need to be an expert to own a business consulting fran­chise. Training comes with any reputable franchise. Take Schooley Mitchell, for example. Focused on lowering client costs by offering objective advice and analysis to reduce telecommunications, mer­chant services (card processing), and small package shipping fees, the franchisee makes the relationship and corporate does the rest. A market innovator, ActionCOACH, has a proven business-con­sulting system in place that has been helping companies for more than two decades. These systems also show franchisees how to coach businesses as well as run successful coaching businesses, providing a systematized roadmap to franchisee success.

Jerry Rieder has been a franchise consultant since 2012. He became part of the FranServe Training and Development Team in 2013 and has helped a large number of consultants become successful. His compassion and desire to see others achieve drives him to share his techniques and best practices with new and experienced consultants alike. He serves as a trainer, a mentor, and also as a facilitator for Fran­Serve’s Power Teams. His prior 25+ years of management experience with Fortune 500 Companies provides the foundation for aiding others to achieve their goals. Contact Jerry at jerry@franserve.com